Substance AbuseAlcohol & Other Drugs

They Lie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQVdhSE-Vc&feature=relmfu

Alcohol & it Effects

After you drink an alcoholic beverage like beer or wine, the alcohol enters your

bloodstream from your stomach and small intestine

From there it travels to your brain resulting in the following:

Slow reaction time

Less coordinated

Impairs your vision

Even at low doses, leads to unclear thinking and problems making good judgments

Facts & StatsEach year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a

result of underage drinking

Number of alcoholic liver disease deaths: 14,406

28 % of female students & 27 % of male students say they rode with a

driver who had been drinking alcohol one or more times

Binge drinking at least once during the 2 weeks before the survey was

reported by 16 percent of 8th graders

Risk Factors

Addiction

About 18 million adults are addicted to alcohol

About half of U.S. teens who start drinking alcohol before age 14 will be addicted to it

at some point

Risk Factors Children of alcoholics are significantly more likely than children of nonalcoholics to

initiate drinking during adolescence and to develop alcoholism

Suicidal Behavior. Alcohol use among adolescents has been associated with

considering, planning, attempting, and completing suicide

In one study, 37 percent of eighth-grade females who drank heavily reported

attempting suicide, compared with 11 percent who did not drink

**Research does not indicate whether drinking causes suicidal behavior, only

that the two behaviors are correlated**

Binge Drinking

Binge drinking is associated with many health problems, including—

• Unintentional injuries (e.g., car crashes, falls, burns, drowning).

• Intentional injuries (e.g., firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence).

• Alcohol poisoning.

• Sexually transmitted diseases.

• Unintended pregnancy.

• Liver disease.

• Neurological damage.

Poor control of diabetes.

Friends & Family

Parents' drinking behavior and favorable attitudes about drinking have been

positively associated with adolescents' initiating and continuing drinking.

Early start of drinking has been identified as an important risk factor for later

alcohol-related problems

Children who were warned about alcohol by their parents and children who

reported being closer to their parents were less likely to start drinking

Peer drinking and peer acceptance of drinking have been associated with

adolescent drinking

“Times are changing” changin”

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/us_alcohol_trend_yrbs.pdf

References

http://teens.webmd.com/teens-and-alcohol

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/us_alcohol_trend_yrbs.pdf